The XX & Friendly Fires at Mohawk, with NO Holly Miranda

Dear Holly Miranda,

I bought tickets to two bands I'd never heard of just to see you play solo.  It's been too long since I saw the Jealous Girlfriends perform at Juanita's in Little Rock.  But then, heartbreak of all heartbreaks, you cancelled.  And I did not realize this until 10PM, after standing smushed as marbles in a kid's back pocket for an hour, when a band came onto the stage that, alas, was not you.  You Tube has been my only consolation since Thursday.  But don't worry.  I am not a fair weather fan, and I'll be front row, (or fourth), the next time you come through town.  Just - please don't cancel again, as next time I might cry.

A little You Tube therapy.

The non-Holly band that came on was The XX, and while I am enjoying thier mellowness in the quiet, calm space of my living room while wearing polar pear pajama pants and thinking about sleep, it was not an exciting enough stage show to merit staying cramped on the lower deck of Mohawk.  Plus, even though I was front stage right, I couldn't see 1/3rd of the band, because the girl was standing behind a speaker.



Ater going upstairs to sit down, I started checking twitter on my phone, and saw that Austin Bloggy and ATXhipsters were both tweeting the show, and one had been right beside me on the deck, and the other was right in front of me on the upper level. 

I kept trying to figure out who was tweeting during the show, but it was actually much darker than this picture makes it look.  Overcast skies make for a great lighting backdrop.

Lennon is not nearly the fan of mellow music that I am, so if I was annoyed by the cancellation of the set I came to see, which was only aggrivated by being bored with the string of songs featuring the Am chord, then it's easier to imagine his level of boredom.  But, he's a good sport, and beer makes everything better.

The Friendly Fires reminded me of the 80's clashing with a disco roller rink.  Every butt in the venue was suddenly on a pendulum, and shook back and forth, back and forth. 

I can't take credit for the above two pictures - I was standing on the stairs, peeking around the corner, as it was the only place I could a) get enough height to see over the crowd and b) not have to fight the impermeable line of people clinging to railings for a vantage point.  So Lennon, being the skinny giant that he is, waded into the fray to take a few pictures for me.

I did take this one.  I watched the Friendly Fires through the frame of a plant.  Then we left, and went to Magnolias for mud dip.  That was when it started to pour.  Good timing.

More Feats of Upper Body Strength: Aerial Silks in Austin

The E.A.S.T. Austin Studio Tour has not been limited to traditional gallery art; it also incorporates workshops, demonstratoins, and performances.  Last Sunday, a few girls from Blue Lapis Light aerial silks studio hosted an outdoor demonstration of their "in-your-face-Newton" stunts on a large yellow rig with long, ominous, silk scarves flowing to the ground where a single yoga mat stood as cushion between aerial mishaps and the grass.

Rolling in late, per usual, I only caught the last part of the performance, but luckily for me...

Winnie Hsia was gracious enough to climb back up the silks to pose for me in a splits position.  My legs threatened to buckle under me if the thought of attempting that even crossed the frontal lobe of my mind. 

I think I'll hedge my bets on gravity-defying moves by sticking to my beginner pole tricks, since at least a pole is anchored to the ground.  On second thought, maybe I'll just continue to be the girl taking pictures.  I'm ok with that.

At the end, all of the girls came out and took a bow.  There was quite a crowd gathering, and the mosquitos had found us, so it was time to go back to an air conditioned gallery.  Be sure to watch for other events put on by local performers this weekend, since the studio tour extended it's run, and if you find Winnie on facebook, she can tell you of other upcoming aerial silk events. 

Also be sure to check out her boyfriend, Danny Strack, Austin's slam poetry team captain for the National Poetry Slam last year! It's hard not to hold a grudge against talented people who, when combined, have the same affect as the Captain Planet rings joining forces to save the universe, but it's worth avoiding the talent-jealousy-grudge to meet them.

The Get Up Kids in Austin: A Real Emo Love Story, or, Why My Boyfriend Almost Slept On The Couch

On Wednesday night, the musicians who created my number one favorite album of my quarter century life time - the Get Up Kids - came to Emo's.  The first song to ever grace my ears by them was "Holiday," on a mix CD my friend Josh gave me in the tenth grade.  I don't remember anything else on the mix CD, but I played "Holiday" so many times in my 1994 Jeep Cherokee, cruising around Fayetteville, AR, with the windows rolled down, that he finally suggested I give the whole album a try.  The Red Letter Day EP quickly followed Something to Write Home About, and the rest... wasn't history.  It was a CD that got played so much I had to buy a new one to replace it.  If you can't tell already, I'm fond of the group.

When I saw them advertised to play in Austin, I bought tickets for myself and Lennon well in advance online.  After they finally arrived in the mail - green and shiny with a holographic sticker - I proudly displayed them in the mirror's frame on my dresser, a daily reminder of my impending high school obsession to be gratified.  Wednesday finally came, I rushed home to grab the tickets and my boyfriend so we could rush right back out to go downtown, but to my surprise and dismay, the house was empty.  When efforts to get in touch proved futile, I did what any self respecting, stood-up girlfriend would do:

I calmly brought his pillows and a blanket downstairs, made him a bed on the couch, (the short one), and wrote a note in red pen that read simply: "Forget?" with the ticket receipt on top.  The spare ticket I suddenly found myself with was quickly offered to my friend Elizabeth, with the suggestion that she and her girlfriend split the price of a third ticket.  So, I left my love letter on his pillow, put a note on his laptop in our room that read "downstairs" just in case he missed it, and left.

Arriving at Emo's was also a surprise - I had no idea that a band I have adored since tenth grade, (TEN YEARS AGO - goodness), was still so popular.  It was packed, and being front row was out of the question.  Elizabeth and Andrea abandoned my plight to move forward after being elbowed back by a few misplaced fraternity brothers, with the threat of violence on the elbowers if they did not remove themselves from the situation quickly.  I'd normally agree with their stand, but this was the Get Up Kids, and I needed to be as close as possible.  "Close as possible" ended up being the third row, pressed in on all sides, with the two tallest people in the venue standing in front of me, and the one ass who thought "Holiday" was a moshable song behind me.  Nonetheless, I held my ground.  Forty-five minutes into the set, I felt someone pull on my sleeve, and before I could flash my face of annoyance, I saw Lennon, crouching behind me so that his too-tall head wouldn't block the view of the girls he'd just pushed in front of, telling me he'd promised he'd be there, and was sorry he forgot about the show when he agreed to go to the poetry slam with Eirik, (I also had a message on my phone from Eirik begging me to go easy on Lennon - aww, male solidarity).

So Lennon had forgotten the slam was that night, came home to find my note, had an "oh crap" moment, ran out the door while Eirik cheered him on with "Go boy go," drove downtown, tried to get in the door with the ticket receipt stub thinking it was the ticket, got laughed at by the door man, ran down the block to the ATM for the cover, got in, got a beer, pushed his way to the front stage left, couldn't find me, pushed his way back out, got another beer, saw Elizabeth who told him to look for the girl in yellow towards stage right, dove back in to the crowd, shoved his way toward an SLR camera up in the air with a yellow hoodie beneath it, and finally found me.  He said he suffered a black eye and bruised elbows to find me in the deluge of bodies. 

Needless to say, I brought his pillows back upstairs for him when we got home.  No too-short love seat doghouse sleeping for my forgetful, sunburned, crowd diving boyfriend.  At least, not this time around.

Community Bakery Slam

Labels poem, from round 1. I NEED to learn how to stand up straight and not hunch over sloppily. And not sway side to side nervously. And do some crunches. And memorize. If I wasn't editing my poems up until the slam started, I might have actually attempted. Lennon hosted this slam, Michael sacrificed in round 2, and we had 10 poets competing from Hendrix Colege, Cabot High School, and one new face. I need to work on my marketing skills, (and my performance anxiety), and things will be amazing.

I spent round 2 fighting to be heard over a cappucino machine. So it goes.